I'm your stolen car,

Your favorite deadbeat bar.

I am better left

Unsaid inside your head.

- July Talk, Someone (2013)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Stay with Leanne," Hank said to Anna. "I'll take Bumbles in and let Rio know what happened."

That proved to be unnecessary, for Rio already knew. The door to the building where she lived flew open, and she blew past Hank without stopping.

"Where did you go?" she shot back.

Anna stepped aside to keep from being the next person in Rio's way. She headed straight for Leanne, and swallowed her up in a hug so enormous that the two women nearly fell into the car.

"I'm okay," Leanne said, her voice still sounding fraught, and muffled by Rio's body. "There was an accident."

"No there wasn't," Anna said, stress tinging her voice as well. "There was almost an accident. A truck almost hit Leanne, and missed her by an inch."

Leanne freed a hand from Rio's embrace and used it to hold one of Anna's. "Yes. There was almost an accident. But Hank and Anna were here, and they kept me safe."

Deep inside the Bentley, and with her toes barely touching the ground, Rio kissed Leanne with the passion of true love. Leanne's voice cracked anew, more from sadness now than from fear.

"I have to go, Wan-chan. I'm going to miss my flight."

Rio kissed Leanne again. "I know, Nushi. You go."

Rio straightened up, and glared at Hank before striding away. She moved down the sidewalk with purpose.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Again, she spoke without slowing. "I have work to do. You were at Milton's. Where's the Ford?"

Hank made noise as if to speak, but Anna beat him to the punch. "I had him get a bigger car. We don't all fit in that little one."

"Leanne has a big car."

"I'm leaving mine at the airport."

Rio growled to herself, knowing Anna was right. She spoke in a loud voice as the distance between them grew. "You let Bad Guys know where we are!"

Anna turned to Hank. "What is with her and these Bad Guys?"

Hank shrugged. As he and Anna faced one another, Leanne wrapped them in her arms and squished them to her body. Bumbles bounded after Rio, barking at her feet.

Leanne made the air escape from Hank and Anna as she gave them a giant squeeze. "You guys take care of the mutt," she instructed.

"Get away from me!" Rio shouted upon noticing the dog. "Go home!"

"And take care of Bumbles, too," Leanne said, teasing while continuing to squeeze.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the chill of a wet dawn, few people on the sidewalk dared getting in Rio's way. Those who did gave way once they realized how much she loathed them. Loathing them not for who they were, but for who she was not. Normal people living their lives blissfully unaware of Reality's constricting noose. A noose for which Rio—being not only a Reality Maker, but also an Other—was reminded of each day, as it grew ever tighter around her neck.

God, how she envied normal people for their ignorant lives.

She walked a circuitous path, throwing up walls at key places to thwart any effort by Bad Guys to retrace her steps. With Milton now missing for days, and with this most recent attempt on Leanne's life—and on Fuji's life the day before—fear screamed in Rio's heart, trying to make her turn back.

So she used hate to push her feet forward. Almost without realizing it, she found herself at the spot where the boulevard took a gentle curve on its way to Asok's. She paused to recall a pleasant fact.

This is where Hank created his Realities.

Rio felt them touch her skin. They floated like butterflies on a warm breeze, knocking cold air from her lungs. Gifts of comfort, acts of kindness—so many, and so wondrous.

But these images were ghosts. Only memories now. Hank was long gone from this place, and he no longer handed out butterflies, unwittingly, to strangers on the street. Rio moved forward a bit, to stand in the intersection just before the deli. She looked down the street, side to side, taking in as much of the city as she could.

The warmth was ripped from her heart. She saw Death stalking the people Hank helped, riding dawn's chill like a whore.

Plotting.

Lurking.

Evil.

This was the place where Anna first appeared, mesmerizing Hank with her beauty. Reality's noose gripped Rio's neck tight, and she screamed to loosen its hold.

"You'll never find them!" she promised.

She threw up so many walls around Asok's that its owner would be lucky if he remembered he owned the place. She then left, wearing a thin smile. The deli would be abandoned. Her next destination was Milton's. She cut through alleys and empty lots, weaving a path meant to conceal her approach. Breathing like a bull through her nostrils, she used her small size to turn a tight corner and squeeze between two buildings.

Her effort to elude Bad Guys came to naught. "Greetings, sōpu sōpu girl," Arius Azrial said.

There he was—head bent to the sky, eyes sparking blue lightning—the man who destroyed the ferry at Taveuni, with her and over five dozen innocent lives on board. At his feet lay the sixty-odd dead, like warriors slain in battle. Smoke snaked from their still-warm souls, caressing him like wenches. Standing stock-still and slack-jawed, Rio watched as he waded through the corpses, treading on them when had to.

He smiled as their bones crunched. "What reason might Heaven have for your visit on this gloomy day?"

Rio retreated not one inch. "I've come to kill you. All of you."

"Ho ho! You have? And how?"

Rio waited until Arius came close. "Like this!"

She feinted a move to his left before grabbing his right wrist with her right hand. Twisting his arm, she exposed the elbow, striking the joint with all her might. She intended for it to break, but before she could follow through, three knuckles jabbed her back, between the shoulder blades. Arius had hit her with such force that she splatted against a wall.

Rio whirled to face her attacker. "Let's go for a ride," he said, still smiling.

"I don't like cars."

"I know!"

In a fraction of a moment, Rio found herself standing by a car with Arius at her side. "That's Milton's car," she said.

"It is! The Aston Martin!"

Rio craned her neck to scowl up at the man. "What are you doing with it?"

"What does anyone do with one of Milton's cars? I'm borrowing it." His cheery tone vanished. "Get in," he growled. "You're driving."

"I don't drive."

No sooner had the words left her lips then, as thunder cracks from lightning, Rio found herself in the driver's seat, with Arius sitting beside her. He buckled his seat belt. Her side of the car had none.

"You gotta quit saying things like that to me," he said.

The Aston Martin came to life and, in another speck of time, Rio found her foot slammed down on the gas. The car roared along city streets at one hundred miles an hour, then one-ten and one-twenty. Through good fortune and God's grace, they struck nothing and no one. The Angel of Death beside her never flinched, enjoying her dismay.

He wore the same outfit he had on when he sunk the ferry. Rio retched on the putrid scent of the leather pauldrons slung over the shoulders of his purple peacoat. She slammed on the brake using both feet, but it had no effect.

The car barreled towards an intersection filled with pedestrians. "Make it stop!" she hollered, seething in her rage.

The car screeched to a halt. Without a seat belt on, her head struck the windshield.

"Who taught you how to drive?" Arius asked, as Rio rubbed the knot on her head. He plucked the answer from her brain. "Milton," he said, all-knowing. "You mean you never drove a car in all those places you lived?"

Rio screamed, too loud. "I don't like cars!"

"Uh-huh," the man replied dryly.

Another thunder clap, and the car was racing again, break-neck down the street. There was no time to react as Rio plowed through heavy traffic. A sedan clipped the left rear of the Aston Martin, spinning it into the oncoming lane. She steered onto the sidewalk, smashing planters, chairs and tables. People dove for cover, until she managed to get the car back on the road again.

"Stop it!" Rio screamed. "Stop this car!"

Arius ignored her, speaking casually. "Oh! Do you know what I get to do? Did you see the guy in that car you just passed?" He slapped her on the arm, as a friend might do in jest.

"What?" she hollered, shaking with anger and fear.

"I'm sending him straight to Hell! Watch!"

Ahead of the chaos Rio was causing, a delivery truck unloaded jugs of water destined for office coolers. For no apparent reason, several straps gave way, releasing twenty jugs. Most of them smashed upon impact with the ground, but one held together long enough to bounce off the hood of the Aston Martin. It turned the windshield into a spiderweb of broken safety glass. As Rio struggled to see, the jug flew through the air and rolled down the road, until it got caught under the left front tire of the car being driven by the man Arius had mentioned.

The car was launched onto its side. It came to rest against the delivery truck, until another car ran into it from behind. The corner of the delivery truck's bumper pierced the windshield of the flipped car, instantly killiing the driver.

Arius bounced in his seat with glee while looking over his shoulder at the carnage. "Got him!" he squealed. "Got him dead!"

Rio found a way to speak calmly. "Please. Take me instead."

"What?"

"Take my life instead of another. Don't make me kill anyone."

"I'll take whomever I like!"

A gust of wind tore a store awning from its moorings. It swung on one bracket, veering into the street. As the last bracket gave way, the awning took out a traffic light and a utility pole before wrapping itself around the loose electrical wires.

The tangled mess landed in the intersection ahead of Rio. With a green light in favor of cross-traffic, a pickup truck approached from her left, and another car from her right. She drove into the awning as the pickup truck veered to avoid her, and crashed head-on into the oncoming car.

Sparks flew from the awning as the Aston Martin dragged it along. Rio screamed, wordless and at the top of her lungs. Arius answered with a scream of his own, louder and lasting longer. He filled the car with purple sparks, far greater than the meager ones created by the awning being dragged outside. Every time a spark struck Rio, she jerked as if electrically shocked. When she turned to the man to beg for mercy, every spark in the car flew into her mouth. Her teeth and tonsils glowed.

Rio lurched as if possessed. With what little sense of being she had left, she drove the Aston Martin full speed into the curb. A storm drain ripped off a front tire, cramming it under the car. The impact forced the car up at a crazy angle, showing only sky through what was left of the windshield. After bouncing off a parked vehicle, the Aston Martin came to rest against a utility box the size of a refrigerator.

Steam boiled from the radiator as the calamity ended. Rio kicked open her door and fell to the ground below. She stumbled around to the other side of the wreck and, with ungodly strength, dragged Arius through the broken window of his door. As she did, his limp body came to life. He took her by the shoulders and lifted her to her toes, shoving her tens of meters into a nearby alley.

"Are you sure you know who you're dealing with, little sōpu sōpu girl?"

Arius screamed like a thousand banshees, pressing Rio against a wall. She spoke not a word, and shoved the man with all her might, forcing him to wheel around and expose his back. With another mighty shove, she bent him over the lip of a nearby open Dumpster.

As he turned to face her, she grinned at the filth on his peacoat. Enraged, he picked her up by the neck with both hands. Baring a smile of spindly teeth, he began choking the life from her body. The tendons in her neck crunched as he squeezed.

"You think your problems will be over if you kill me." He snarled. "The whole world will die by my hand!"

"Hai," Rio croaked, as Death approached, so near she could taste it. "You first."

The man's hands went from her throat to her temples. He filled her with his oily rage, the stench blackening her heart. Death roiled the air like a storm, bringing Rio to tears. In her mind, she begged God's Heaven for some sort of divine intervention.

Hank-sama, please help me. Milton! Aika! Sweet Jesus!

Bellowing inhuman noise, Arius flung Rio in the air. He stepped aside to watch her land, face first on the pavement.

"You and your pansy friends will all meet Death today," he said as he circled her body.

Clarity came to Rio. If she had to die, she would take this man with her. She gripped a cobblestone cemented in the ground, firm and unforgiving. She willed her fingernails into the mortar, commanding the stone to respond.

"Give… it… to… me."

The stone rose an inch before Arius grabbed Rio by the hair and brought her to her feet. Before he could react, she purposefully crumpled in a heap. The man stumbled as his weight shifted, tripping over her first, and then the raised cobblestone.

With a sickening crack, his cheekbone shattered against the steel corner of the open Dumpster. Blood sprayed out his nose and eye, and the man gagged and fell. The back of his head struck the cobblestone, and he lay motionless next to Rio.

She rose to her feet. She screamed, spat and kicked at the man, but he never moved again. Blood oozed from where his head lay. Just to be sure he was dead, she stomped on his face several times until she heard bones break. She then puked oily black vomit into a sewer drain before making her way from the alley.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rio cleaned up at a sink in the redoubt. She removed all her clothes except for her chemise and bra, and donned a pair of long-legged cotton panties. She then put on dungarees and a field jacket before loading herself up with as many weapons as she could carry.

She stood outside the redoubt at the spot where she had once smoked a bidi while waiting as Hank rescued Bumbles. Using a grenade launcher, she fired a round into the open laundry room window before firing two more grenades, one through the window of her quarters above the sun porch, and the other into the Japanese bath next door. She circled the back half of the building, emptying clip after clip from an assault rifle into the ground floor windows.

Casting the rifle aside, Rio entered Milton's mansion. She fired through every doorway, using two handheld Uzi machine guns. When she ran out of clips for those, she cast them aside and dropped hand grenades down the stairwells she passed.

She ran through the transverse hallway that led to the conference lunch room and stood by the blank vending machine. Using two TEC DC-9 pistols, she filled the beast with bullets. Red liquid oozed from its wounds, as did all the damage she had inflicted on Milton's mansion—the building bled as if alive.

But the vending machine would not die. It sparked and crackled and groaned, until she shoved a grenade in its maw. As she ran for cover, the machine exploded with such force that it blew a hole through the roof, taking out most of the room. Rio performed similar routines on the carriage house and the redoubt before using plastic explosives and a flamethrower to set everything ablaze. Lastly, she again stripped to her skivvies, feeding her battle gear into the flames.

The estate screamed as it burned. No one came to its rescue—no fire truck, no policeman. Rio sat in the fire until it grew too hot to bear, then retreated to a knoll near the portico path. A few short days ago, a Savior approached from this knoll, chasing a cartoon dog created by her otoko. Today, she walked away from the ruins using that very same path. Barefoot, bleeding, beaten and bruised, she shivered in her chemise and cotton leggings at a bus stop, waiting to be taken home.

It was going to feel good to have Hank hold her in his arms when she arrived.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After Rio was out of sight, Hank and Anna watched Leanne drive away. Bumbles sat at their feet, looking at Hank expectantly.

"Well," Hank said to Anna. "I guess we go inside."

"Do you have a key to get in?" Anna asked as they approached the apartment building.

"Uh… no," Hank realized. "I don't."

Anna huffed. She dug through her purse while grumbling. "I can see now why I got Leanne in this relationship deal of ours." She found a key Leanne had given her. "Rio's as useless as you."

Before Hank could come up with a retort, Anna's phone blasted a ringtone from her purse.

"Bring Hank-sama to me," Aika said after Anna answered. "Right now. Dōzo yoroshiku."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Whenever I write about Rio, I oftentimes think of Sisyphus—the mythological king of Corinth. His punishment for cheating Death is to forever roll a boulder up a foreboding hill. The sweat pours from his body, the dust roils in his face, and every time he thinks he has reached the summit, the darn thing rolls back down, running roughshod over him, and forcing him to start again.

Poor Rio. I feel for you. You'll never kill them all, and they only have to kill you once. 😿

The Book of CHASTITY - Chapter ONE

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